If Israelis wanted peace, they have a funny way to go about it. In their way of thinking, it would then make sense to kill all Palestinian men, women, and children. Wipe them off the surface of this Earth... pretty much like Adolf Hitler tried to wipe the Jewish people out. Maximum violence, maximum destruction, teaching them a lesson that they will never forget... but there's the rub: they will indeed never forget.

The world is a sad place to be in these days. In the States, we've gotten rid of George Bush and his neocon club who used the same terror tactics on the Iraqis, in the name of fighting international terrorism. But we still are (and presumably will still be) the biggest purveyors of weapons of mass destruction and military assistance to Israeli governments bent on crushing mercilessly any Palestinian resistance.

"A thousand eyes for one eye" must be the prescription of a modern covenant of the God of Abraham for his "chosen people"? No, I don't think so. Those appear to be the actions of a people that has lost its soul... and thinks that the only way to achieve peace is through mass killing.

Hamas firing rockets into Israel? Unacceptable. Especially when you consider that the rockets have steadily improved in range and sophistication and could conceivably strike in the near future some nuclear plant in Israel, with terrible consequences for all in the region (and perhaps the entire world). Hamas does have to stop that shit. But think about this, wasn't it like yesterday we were accusing Russia of disproportionate response against Georgia???

Now, if the Russian response was disproportionate, how then should we characterize Israel's response?

That is the big dilemma for U.S. foreign policy: we have one set of measures for "our friend" (or friends) and a different set of measures for "the other" (or the others)? How credible is our stance? Zilch. Zero. Nada. The U.S. government does not have one leg to stand on, especially after they publicly urged Israel to continue the bombing of Lebanon while the rest of the world was crying for a ceasefire. And now, as usual, it gives a free pass to Israel. Go and kill until you are tired of killing. That seems to have worked for us in Iraq, so we assume that it will work for you too in "your territories". Will Obama fall for the same trap in Afghanistan? Time will tell. Yes, it is so American and so Israeli to think that you can buy peace at the end of a bayonet. Peace as silencing forever. The trouble with that thinking is the triumph of illusion over a festering reality.

The neocon model of imposing a democratic process in which elections are acceptable only when the results go "our way" has run its course. The world of the suffering is not buying it. Similarly, when this conflict is over and Gaza has supposedly been zeroed, the Israeli people will surely find out that their campaigns of overwhelming violence to suppress all resistance is futile.

The rockets should stop, but the bombings have been a thousand times more murderous and should be stopped accordingly a thousand times as urgently. The destruction of Palestinian schools and hospitals will not serve Israel's interests. In fact, "shock and awe" will only buy them the same disdain that the U.S. government currently receives in Iraq. While the departing Bush government finds itself uncomfortably at the end of shoes thrown to mark its spectacular failure, the Israeli people may be in for a more severe shock. This is no way to buy peace. There's got to be some other way... but who in Israel will be creative and courageous enough to forge a new path, before it is too late?

I can only hope that the new U.S. administration will at least stop pouring gas over the burning bush.